A season Preview of ADO Den Haag as the beginning of the new Eredivisie campaign draws near.
- By Mark Neale
- Follow Mark on Twitter
A tale of two halves last season ended in what looked like a comfortable ninth place finish, equaling the same position as the previous campaign. Nothing could be further from the truth, as up until the sacking of Maurice Steijn in February nothing but relegation looked to be on the cards, but with his assistant Hendrikus Fräser being placed in caretaker charge, ADO went on to lose just once in their next twelve games, and that loss was to eventual champions Ajax.
What can ADO fans expect this season?
The close season has been that of changes, a new fully synthetic pitch is now in use at the Kyocera Stadion. Changes at boardroom level too as CEO Piet Janson left stating he could not stay at the club with foreign owners. Those said owners arrived in the form of Chinese company United Vansen Sports, and European football is their aim. Additions to the squad have been forth coming, but the most important signing could be again that of retaining the services of leading goalscorer Mike van Duinen. Top scorer again last season with 10 goals and 3 assists in all competitions, Van Duinen has again courted interest this summer, with AZ Alkmaar a club linked with his signature.
The squad has seen plenty of player movement, going out five players, with Tom Beugelsdijk, and Danny Holla the most notable departure.
The incoming players is where the most interest lays with goalkeepers Tim Coremans coming from SC Cambuur and Danish keeper Martin Hanson arriving from FC Nordsjælland to give plenty of competition to Robert Zwinkels.
Defensively the arrival of Sem de Wit from FC Dordrecht give more options to Henk Fraser but it’s the midfield that has caught the eye. None more so than ex Danish international Thomas Kristensen from FC Copenhagen. Kristensen arrives with Europa League and Champions league experience as well has almost 200 top flight appearances in the Danish league and his experience could prove invaluable as the club hope to break into the European competition places.
So what’s required for a more tranquil but successful season this season? If Henk Fraser can continue were he left off after taking over, a much more positive team ethic and good football will be assured. Armed with his 2 year contract, new owners bringing an alleged €5-10 million transfer fund, good signings already made in the shape of Coremans, Hanson and Kristensen paralleled with keeping striker and captain Mike van Duinen the signs do look good. Both Van Duinen and Kristensen will be key men in achieving the new owners ambitions.
The present and the future for the club looks good on and off the pitch, new investors, state of the art artificial playing surface, healthy season tickets sales combined with a good blend of youth and some top quality experience there should be no reason why European play off places cannot be an unreachable target.
My prediction: 6th
Follow
Dear Mark Neale,
What a great, well informed article, my compliments to you and football-oranje.com for publishing this season preview. ADO Den Haag is not the “prettiest girl in school” so it’s great to read something so positive about them. I would like to add a few things.
Firstly, the combination of trainers at ADO Den Haag is a very interesting one for the Dutch competition: the head coach Henk Fräser is of Surinamese origin and the assistant coach Ekrem Kaya is Turkish-Dutch, both are former high level professional football players. Quite a unique couple, you don’t see this often in The Netherlands.
Furthermore, in March of 2014 ADO obtained a new technical manager who is also the head of the youth academy: Rob Meppelink. ADO has since offered three or four youth players a contract, of which two are quite interesting. Left and right back Tyrone Ebuehi (Dec 1995) came from an amateur club last season and has already played for ADO’s first team in the second half of his first season at ADO Den Haag. Ebuehi is still young but has good length. Dylan Nieuwenhuijs (Jan 1995) also entered ADO last season and was given a contract recently to play for ADO’s reserve team, by recommendation of U19 trainer Richard Knopper who is a former Ajax player. Nieuwenhuijs, an attacking midfielder with incredible skills, could be a winner for ADO, his CV is very impressive. One of the five youth players who have been training with the first team recently is also interesting to watch: Segun Owobowale (March 1997), who did fairly well at the U17 European Championships this year. It’s special that ADO delivers a player to the national U17 team, normally players like this (such as Nathan Ake who now plays for Chelsea, and Ricardo Kishna who plays for Ajax) would have already left Den Haag, but ADO has signed Owobowale last year.
I agree with you that it can be a huge opportunity for a club like ADO Den Haag, to attrackt a Chinese investor with great passion for football. Patience is an important factor in Chinese culture, and I think that is what’s needed for ADO Den Haag while this transition takes place. I also believe that 6th or 7th place the the Eredivie is feasible for this club with a super tight base of local, no-nonsense fans. One of the opportunities for the Chinese, besides buying players for the first team, would be to renovate ADO’s youth complex – it would show real vision if they did that!